The President, Mohammadu Buhari says Nigeria spent over $1bn to reclaim Boko Haram-held territories in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.
Buhari said despite spending over $1 billion to reclaim the lost territories since 2015, Nigeria’s security and that of the Lake Chad Basin remain unstable due to lingering conflicts in Libya, the Central African Republic and Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
The President said this after he received the “Award for Strengthening Peace in Africa” from the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania on Tuesday.
In a speech given at the African Conference for Peace, in 2023, Buhari explained that the free circulation of “all sorts of small and light weapons” orchestrated by foreign fighters is one of the main reasons for the ongoing instability.
Additionally, the President argued that the idleness of African youths and their lack of inclusion in discussions concerning their future is providing a steady recruitment pool for extremist organizations wreaking havoc across the continent.
Therefore, Buhari urged leaders to place a premium on youth development and to take more serious and actionable steps in promoting skills acquisition and discouraging idleness.
He also urged his counterparts to concretize efforts to curtail and possibly prevent the circulation of Small Arms and Light Weapons and the festering of foreign fighters into Africa.
This is according to a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, titled ‘President Buhari receives award for peace in Africa, lists conditions for future harmony.’
The President said, “When I assumed power in 2015, Boko Haram held about two-thirds of Borno State, half of Yobe State, and a couple of local government areas in Adamawa State, all in the North-East of Nigeria.
“We have been able to retrieve these swathes of territories by investing over $1bn to acquire hard and software weaponry from the US and other friendly countries to carry out sustained operations against insurgency since 2015.”
According to him, these monies would have been better spent on critical infrastructure such as healthcare and education.
“Our Armed Forces and those of our partners in the Multinational Joint Task Force (consisting of Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Benin Republic and Nigeria) continue to demonstrate great bravery while paying the ultimate price in securing our collective freedom.
“Despite the difficult times we face, we continue to spend very scarce and lean resources to ensure that we have a well-resourced military force to take on this task. Ideally, these are resources that could be spent on education, healthcare, infrastructure and other social services, but without peace, we have learnt the hard way that our children cannot go to school or seek good healthcare,” the President stated.
He explained that the scenario created serious instability and served as a litmus test for member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission in devising means to restore the livelihoods within the region.
The President also urged the current chairperson of the AU, Senegalese President Macky Sall, to find a pragmatic African approach to resolving the over-a-decade-old instability that has made the country a haven for all kinds of weapons and foreign fighters.
In his remarks, the President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, said the 2023 conference theme was based on the recommendations of the “Nouakchott Declaration” that emerged from the inaugural conference.
Bayyah explained that the award was given to Buhari for providing good leadership, promoting peace in a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-linguistic country like Nigeria and extending his experience and wisdom to other African countries.
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